


I'll Shield You From the Cold

by Tornainbow



Category: Teenage Bounty Hunters (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Post-Episode 10, Snowball Fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:07:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27641848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tornainbow/pseuds/Tornainbow
Summary: April doesn’t see it coming because she’s got her head down and her phone out, texting Ezekiel and Hannah B. about hanging out after school, but she certainly feels the snowball that hits her square in the chest and explodes all over her face, coat,andher phone.
Relationships: April Stevens/Sterling Wesley
Comments: 24
Kudos: 157





	I'll Shield You From the Cold

**Author's Note:**

> I needed some fluff, so here's some fluff. First finished and posted fic in over five years, so that feels good.

April doesn’t see it coming because she’s got her head down and her phone out, texting Ezekiel and Hannah B. about hanging out after school, but she certainly feels the snowball that hits her square in the chest and explodes all over her face, coat, _and_ her phone.

When April looks up, it is with deadly wrath in her eyes and she sees one Blair Wesley doing a fist pump in the air and looking all too pleased with herself. April sees that the rest of the courtyard is ground zero for an impromptu snowball fight as everyone takes advantage of the fresh snowfall from over the weekend.

When Blair notices April’s murder eyes on her, she sports a self-satisfied grin and half hides behind Sterling who isn’t paying attention, crouched down and forming her own snowball.

April rolls her eyes because _of course_ Blair is hiding behind Sterling. She doesn’t miss the glint in Blair’s eyes, narrows her own, and mouths ‘coward’ at Blair.

April gets flipped off in response.

Without a shred of shame, Blair dips even further behind Sterling and blatantly uses her twin sister as a human shield. With the way Blair keeps a watchful eye on April from over Sterling’s hunched back, April already knows another snowball onslaught is coming.

“Do NOT throw that snowball at me, Blair Wesley,” April says, projecting her command with her most authoritative Fellowship Leader voice. The manic grin on Blair’s face only gets bigger and she starts packing that snowball even faster.

 _Ugh_. April laments that she has no control over how she feels about Sterling, who just happens to have the most annoying sister on the planet.

Sterling, however, tunes into the sound of April’s voice like it’s a dog whistle, honing in on April despite the shrieking of other students around them. The snowball drops from Sterling’s hand when she stands up straight. “April, hey—”

A snowball slams into the side of Sterling’s face and she goes down with spinning arms and a loud ‘oof!’ when she hits the ground.

“ _Ohmygod_.” April rushes forward immediately, kneeling next to Sterling. “Are you okay?”

April hears Blair above her, yelling, “Fuck you, Franklin!”

“Ow, ow.” Sterling is holding the side of her face, which is sporting a bright red mark. She seems fine, but extremely disgruntled. “Did he put a rock in there or something? Jeez.”

April sees red. She has every intention of eviscerating Franklin, but when she turns she sees Franklin running straight at her, arm cocked back to deliver a devastating snowball at nearly point-blank range, and Blair frantically packing a snowball while yelling, “Watch out!”

April can see the intent in Franklin’s eyes to smash a snowball into her face—something he’s probably wanted to do for a long time. There’s no time to dodge or run away, and certainly not with Sterling as the next likely target and still sprawled out on the ground. April leans over her, ready to take the brunt of snow coming their way.

Franklin is all of five feet away when the loudest war cry erupts from behind the twins and April, then a snowball rockets through the air and collides right into the middle of Franklin’s face with enough force that he’s doesn’t just stop dead in his tracks, nearly all momentum gone, but his feet fly forward and his back hits the ground hard. The snowball bursts so hard against his face that the shower of snowflakes has a ten foot blast radius.

April looks for the source of their savior and finds Hannah B standing in front of Ezekiel, breathing hard and looking like an angel of vengeance about to enter a battle royale. Her eyes are wild and her cheeks flushed. Ezekiel is behind her, half hidden by winter dead shrubbery and leaning against the ledge since one of his prosthetics is in Hannah’s hands. April isn’t quite sure what she’s seeing until Hannah B brings the prosthetic to rest on her shoulder and Ezekiel plops a perfectly made snowball right where he usually attached his shoes. He taps her shoulder, gets another snowball ready.

Upon the shoulder tap, Hannah B releases another battle cry more befitting a Viking warrior than a 16-year-old Willingham student, and it echoes through the courtyard as she uses Ezekiel’s prosthetic like a _goddamn_ catapult. The snowball that Hannah B launches flies at Franklin at record speed. It smashes against one of his boots, but the force of it bursting still splatters snow all over him. He starts scrambling to his feet to get some distance. Blair starts getting her own snowballs in and Franklin covers the back of his head from the onslaught, snowballs chasing him until he finds cover around a walkway corner.

Something about Hannah B’s cry sets something off in the courtyard and there’s a frenzy of students picking sides and grabbing snowballs. Squeals from students trying to get out of the crossfire get jumbled up into the laughter of everyone else.

April practically drags Sterling up and out of the crossfire, Blair providing cover as they retreat behind the well-oiled machine that is Hannah B and Ezekiel and their nonstop flurry against Franklin and the rest of the golf team. The Bad Kids, at some point, become an interloping third faction when they take over the south walkway like a dark cloud and enter the fray.

“You think I could convince Hannah B to join lacrosse?” Blair murmurs with stars in her eyes.

They’re all too busy having fun and dodging snowballs to think about the fact that the holy trinity of Willingham is having _fun_ with the scandalous Wesley twins during an on campus snowball fight, of all things. The golf team guys don’t really put up much of a fight—probably because Ezekiel keeps glaring at them anytime a snowball lands within two feet of him. The ones that get too close for better aim learn not risking Hannah B’s wrath.

April's cheeks are aching from smiling so much. It’s silly, just a snowball fight, but for a brief minute she actually feels like a kid and not someone desperately wishing they could graduate and put high school and their family far, far behind them.

Is it inevitably that she gravitates toward Sterling? April will adamantly deny it, but she does take a page out of Blair’s book. Sterling’s tall, okay? She provides a lot of cover for someone of April’s stature, but Sterling doesn't seem to mind how close April huddles against her back when the snowballs come flying.

After Sterling gets bombarded with snow only to find _both_ April and Blair hiding behind her, Sterling decides she's had enough of being the vanguard. She snakes her long arms around April and hauls the smaller girl in front of her just in time for the golf team and the Satanists to team up for a coordinated snowball attack at the Fellowship leaders. If Sterling’s arms weren’t firmly wrapped around her, April might have considered putting up more of a fight to escape. She gets pelted mercilessly, all while Sterling’s laugh tickles her cheek and yet April doesn't care one iota that she'll be covered in snow.

Then she feels cold, _cold_ snow sliding down the back of her neck. The yelp that escapes April is not even close to dignified as her body contorts and her back uselessly tries to arch away from the chill.

“You did not just do that.” April manages to wiggle herself free and she scoops up a handful of snow with every intent of returning the favor. She tries to keep her glare serious, but that crooked grin when she’s genuinely happy is persistently present.

Sterling waggles her eyebrows then takes off running, surprisingly spry considering she was the far more gangly twin.

April leaves the courtyard snowball fight behind, chasing Sterling until Sterling starts chasing her back and they’re caught up in their own little snowfall. April doesn’t notice that Sterling is leading them further and further from the courtyard until she finds Sterling waiting very purposefully for her to catch up before running off again.

It happens again and April catches a flash of hooded eyes and a blush. April forgets the damp chill at her back and follows, dropping the snowball she was carrying. She doesn’t need it anymore.

April tracks Sterling’s footprints in the snow across the campus, all the way to the gymnasium where she can hear the muffled screech of sneakers and chaotic rhythm of a dozen dribbling basketballs. Coach Espisito’s deep voice bellows instructions between piercing whistles, but they don’t quite drown out the crunch of snow beneath April’s boots when she passes by the gym’s front double doors, then continues past the entrance to the girl’s locker room.

Behind the gym, April finds Sterling leaning against the wall, breathing into her mittens to keep her face warm. There’s nobody else around and the fields below are an untouched blanket of snow. There is a single door from the gym that leads outside, but it’s unlikely that anyone will come bursting through. If it were any other time of year, it would be bustling with athletes and coaches getting to and from the fields, but the winter chill has driven all the season’s sports inside.

Sterling’s eyes crinkle happily when she spots April. “I was hoping you’d follow me,” she says, voice muffled.

April hums in response and steps in front of the taller girl. Sterling drops her hands to her sides, revealing a big, closed-mouth smile and stares at April silently—as if daring her to make the first move.

She’ll be mad at herself later for taking the risk, for not caring about all the things unresolved between them. She's as good at lying to herself as she is with others.

“It’s cold,” is all April says before she nudges at Sterling’s boots until Sterling gets the hint and makes enough space between her legs for April to step between them.

Sterling wraps her arms around April and pulls her in. Even though there are probably at least six layers of clothing separating them, the feeling of being wrapped up in Sterling leaves April feeling happy in a way she hasn’t in a long time. Since before the lock-in. She tucks her nose into the crook of Sterling’s neck, stops caring, and settles her hands on Sterling’s hips.

It’ll only be a moment. Just a minute. They don’t speak and the silence is only broken by their soft breathing. Their puffs of breath escape as steam from between their tightly coiled bodies.

However temporary, it’s a bubble where April can pretend to forget that Sterling never told her that she chased April’s father down and tossed him in jail. Sterling can pretend to forget that April dumped her because April was too afraid to come out.

It’s well past a minute.

Sterling’s hand comes up to cup the back of April’s head, as if they aren’t already close enough. It fills April with something that wraps around her heart and clenches.

April pulls away just enough to look at Sterling and ask with her eyes what she can’t without words. Her heartbeat quickens when Sterling’s gaze flickers to April’s lips, then Sterling’s eyes are asking the same—pleading, even, and April has a flash of the last time Sterling had tried to kiss her. The way April had turned away.

April’s eyes flutter closed as she leans back into Sterling and kisses her like she could have on that bench. A kiss that forgives. A kiss that says _yes, maybe someday_.

Sterling breathes in deeply as they angle and fit together, holding April even tighter and it feels like they’re right back to where they were two months ago. They’re rushing and not talking and not thinking about where they are because all they can think about is getting their lips on each other.

A whimper escapes Sterling when April brushes her tongue against Sterling’s bottom lip, but Sterling is the one who pushes forward and slides her tongue against April’s. The whole weight of her body is against Sterling, but it’s mostly centered at their hips, dangerously so. Sterling kisses April with everything in her, hands grasping at April’s back, shoulders, and hips—whatever they can touch.

They can’t get any closer without it turning into something far too intimate for where they are. April already doesn’t feel the cold whatsoever, even when Sterling reverses their positions to pin April against the cold concrete.

Then a snowball smashes into the back of Sterling’s head.

“Bullseye, bitches!”

Sterling’s head pops up and whips around, the remnants of the offending snowball falling from her hair and shoulders. Some of it is dripping down her face and collar, already melted from the heat coming off of Sterling’s flushed cheeks.

“Blair!” Sterling roars as she drops down to pack a snowball for retaliation. “You better run because I’m gonna shove this down your bra!”

Blair takes off like a winter hare running from a fox and disappearing into the campus tundra, cackling at Sterling the whole time. April laughs at the twins and their antics, even though her heart had been in her throat for a hot second.

Thank God it was only Blair. April hardly would have thought she’d be grateful for that. She is and isn’t glad they hadn’t gotten carried away much further, and orients her composure while Sterling runs Blair off.

When Sterling returns, she’s rankled. “She ruined the moment,” Sterling grumbles. 

April finds it cute more than anything. Already forgetting her earlier concerns, she’s tempted to suggest that they move their activities to somewhere more private and warmer where they can shed a layer or two, but then her phone pings with a couple of notifications.

April sighs after checking her messages. “Ezekiel and Hannah B are wondering where I am.”

Sterling, despite her earlier words, is all sly eyes and a mischievous grin. “Tell ‘em you’ll meet them out front in ten minutes,” she says as she places her hands on the wall and brackets April with her arms.

April has a hard time thinking of reasons to say no when Sterling’s lips are on her neck and they lose a couple more minutes to each other before April’s phone pings again. She ignores it, but Sterling’s phone starts ringing too.

April reluctantly stops and says against Sterling’s lips, “You should probably answer that, and I should probably go.”

“S’just Blair.”

That’s good enough for April and she pulls Sterling back in, but Sterling’s phone keeps ringing and ringing and ringing until Sterling finally answers it, only to bark into the receiver, “What?!”

 _“Are you done shoving your tongue down Satan’s throat? I’m freezing my ass off waiting for you,_ ” Bair’s voice comes carrying through.

“It’s not that cold.” Sterling rolls her eyes. “Five minutes, just wait in the car with the heater on.”

_“I was left to fend for myself once you skipped off to play tonsil hockey and I’ll have you know that I got hit with a lot of snowballs. I’m exposed to the elements out here. I could get pneumonia. Or frostbite.”_

“I somehow doubt that.”

_“I could lose my fingers. You’re going to have to explain to Mom why it’s your fault I lost my lacrosse scholarship and then you’ll be stuck hand feeding me for the rest of your life.”_

“I’m hanging up.”

_“I also maybe told Hannah B and Ezekiel that I saw April by the locker rooms, so you’ve probably got all of two minutes to continue desecrating the gym.”_

Sterling groans. “Fine, I’ll be there in a minute.” She puts her phone away and looks at April like a kicked puppy.

“Stop that.” April laughs and pushes at Sterling’s shoulder half-heartedly. “You should get going,” she adds with less enthusiasm.

Sterling doesn’t move. “Meet me here after school tomorrow?”

April only has to think about the risk for a second to feel it sober her. “Sterling,” she says and infuses all the hesitation and concern over the last two months into her voice.

“April.”

“ _Sterl_.”

Somehow Sterling looks even sadder than a kicked puppy. “ _April_.”

“Fine,” April huffs. She keeps underestimating Sterling's fortitude.

Sterling is suddenly the human embodiment of sunshine and rainbows and bounces forward for a chaste kiss. “Maybe somewhere more private?”

April cocks an eyebrow. “Presumptuous.”

“You’d rather be outside?”

“...No.” It reminds April to be conscientious of her friends showing up any moment. “We’ll figure it out tomorrow.” 

Sterling smiles and April hates how much she’s missed it.

“See you tomorrow,” Sterling says, but then gets all of five steps away before she bounds back and sneaks in one last kiss.

April’s affectionate smile betrays her even as she rolls her eyes. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Sterl.” Sterling takes a scenic route back to the student parking lot and April doesn’t take her eyes off the taller girl until Sterling disappears around a building.

Alone, April pulls her glove off and presses the tips of her fingers to her lips, reminiscing over the last however many minutes until the cold chases her hand back into her glove.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm mostly on [tumblr](https://tornainbow.tumblr.com/) just being a chaotic mess in general.
> 
> Shout out to [jimalim](https://jimalim.tumblr.com/) for cheering me on!


End file.
